Starfox:Reasons
by JK707
Summary: My first fanfic. Tell me what you think, but be nice. Based around post command. Sorry about the prologue being in the middle...
1. Chapter 1

For what's left

Fox knew it was true, Krystal had left him and everyone behind. The star fox team, the Star wolf team, him and everyone else she even cared about. This was all it took for Fox to snap, turning himself into a cold-hearted killer, Exactly like Krystal, unbeknownst to him.

He woke up in a cold sweat. "_Another dream, dammit."_ Fox rose up from the bed he was sleeping on. "Wait a minute." He paused, looking over his surroundings. "This isn't the hotel." "No, it isn't." He was startled by the voice coming from the door, a shadow standing behind the reinforced steel. "I know it's you, Fox. You've been targetting me for way too long." Fox reached for his pistol, in expectations he should've realised earlier, that it had been confiscated. "I didn't know you thought i was going to kill you." Fox evilly smiled at his captor. "But you forgot to realise one thing: I've already killed you." This threw the captor back a bit, not understanding how he could have possibly killed him, considering he was still breathing. "Yeah right Fox, good one but i think it's actually you that's going to die." The Canine replied, revealing it's body outlines making it clearly a canine. "That's what you think, have glass of water because you look a little parched." Fox said, as his head also rised from the darkness, showing the red contact that he had for his right eye making him look ever more insane. The canine looked even more worried than before, because of the fear, he strode of towards the bridge of the ship without a further word. Fox leaned back again. _"He doesn't know, HA! He's completely forgot that he's the prey from the first minute i saw him."_ Fox took out a small button off his clothing, having a small device come out with it. "And he's not going to know what hit him." As Fox suddenly pressed the button, clearly showing it was a detonator, as the ship shook and the sounds of explosions down the hallway becoming louder by the minute. The barred door was also blown open, making his escape he went to the weapons locker, just outside the room._ "Time to collect the bounty." _Fox thought to himself, again giving his face a crazy expression that was incredibly evil.

Krystal otherwise known as Kursed, was watching the same ship that Fox was on._ "What the hell?" _She suddenly became more alert as the ship had internal explosions from all over, starting from the engines to the hangar, gaining speed to the bridge. Kursed gained control of the situation before her and piloted her ship on a course for the hangar. When she got there she was surprised by the situation. "The captain's dead run!" A crewman yelled as blaster fire rained through the corridor to the hangar. Kursed was already halfway across the hangar until a blinding flash knocked to her back and the last thing she saw was a dark red-like fox with crazy in his eyes and looking slight thinner than a normal fox should, glanced at her and ran for her ship.

Fox looked at the unconscious vixen that was on the floor of the ship. _"Who is she?" _He wondered, as the ship rocked. "I got to leave now." He advised himself. _"But what about her?" _Fox grabbed the vixen and slumped her onto his back and started to run for Kursed's ship. Fox put the vixen in the medbay, seeing that she had sustained a few cuts and burns from the explosion that rendered her unconscious. Fox wanted to know who it was until he looked closely at the damaged suit she was in. There was a small patch of blue fur that was singed. Fox looked at the vixen again and said to himself. _"I-Is is her? After all these years?" _He shook his head and got rid of the thought. _"Of course not. It can't be. _It could be just another vixen bounty hunter that dyed her hair blue." He listened to his thoughts. He was beginning to doubt that it was her when she suddenly murmured a few words. "F-fox, I-." She didn't get out anymore than that, she was in a sleeping state now. _"I-I-IT CAN'T BE!" _Fox's eyes grew wide with shock as he realised that the blue vixen in front of him, was and definitely was: Krystal. He was completely terrified by the fact she was right next to him. He suddenly got back to the cockpit of the ship and plotted a course for a civilised planet, in hopes of dropping her and her ship to the nearest spaceport.

Kursed awoke in a staff room in a spaceport with a daze, she became suddenly more alert as she looked around the room. "Finally, you're awake." She froze and looked at the fox in the corner. "F-Fox?" The fox in the corner didn't really respond to the name. "You must be in a daze. I'm not Fox, i'm just an employee at this spaceport and my name's Odin by the way." She became dissapointed as she heard it wasn't him, just another person she didn't know. "But there was this guy that dropped you and his ship here." She jumped to her feet immediately and grabbed the surprised fox. "Where did he go?" She asked, desperately. "The other fox? well he said if you needed details, Refer to this message." He took a note out of his pocket, passing it to Kursed. Kursed looked at the note and began reading. "I wrote this message in case you woke up, vixen. But as you've probably guessed i'm not there. I'm already off planet, looking for my next bounty. If you need any more info, talk to Zax, one of my old employers. But remember this: he's scum. Sincerely, Dead-X. Kursed immediately asked the fox she had let go: "Who is Zax?" The fox backed off a bit, eventually answering the question. "Only one of the most feared men in this sector, he hands out warrants for people who have betrayed him or just become a fucking nuisance." Kursed asked another question, not taking the words of caution in advisement. "Where can i find him?" The fox opened his eyes wide and looked at her. "You're serious? You want to find this scum? Well you'll find him at the other side of the spaceport, he's made his presence already and he's causing trouble as you can probably guess." Kursed ran out of the room and went to the other side of the spaceport. "Who was this guy? The guy who blew that ship apart, solo and spared me from a horrible death?" She wondered as she ran towards Zax, already making himself visible. Surprisngly, he wasn't protected by guards. She walked up to him and made herself visible to him. This fox was surprised that a bounty hunter had walked up to him, and hadn't taken a shot a him. "What do you want?" He angrily looked at the vixen, not trusting her for a second. "I need information on another bounty hunter, Dead-X he called himself." The fox looked at her with a predatory smile, which made her back off a bit. "He's not a bounty hunter, he's a psychotic assassin that only takes missions that end with the target dying." The vixen was taken aback a bit, that a unmerciful fox, had spared her life for no reason at all.

The fox looked at her with twitch in his eye. "Why do you need to find him?" He asked, with no implied suggestion of getting her to work for him. "Let's just say we had meeting in the past." Kursed replied, surprised that the fox wasn't aking for favors. "Why aren't you asking for something?" she asked. He let out a frown. "Because in my experience, Dead-X is the most dangerous person i know, he isn't someone to be fucked with especially if you already know him." He started walking off. "Wait! Just one more question: where can i find him now?" He stopped and turned around. "He's on the one and only ship: Star Fox." Kursed opened her eyes wide, but the fox couldn't see her expression through the helmet. "He took it from the Fox McCloud, the old captain from the ship." Her eyes calmed as she was thinking Dead-X couldv'e been her old love, Fox. "And rumors say that it was taken by force, and Fox was killed or marooned on a planet to die." Her eyes started watering from the thought of Fox being dead. She quickly walked to the hangars after the conversation to get her ship. _"How is this possible? It's like a ghost hearing that this is all connected to the Star Fox." _She got into her ship and put in coodinates for the Star Fox, which still had coordinates, obviously making it clear that Dead-X wanted to be found.

Dead-X looked out the window of the bridge of the Star Fox, feeling that someone was on their way._ "Why didn't i just dissappear?" _He asked himself. _"Why didn't i just leave at that spaceport with not a single clue to where i am?"_ He got angry and slammed his fist into the metallic wall, making a echo go through the ship. _"But, Noooo. I had to just see her one more time, so that we could bring up the past and get even angrier." _He started getting more pissed off by the second when he suddenly thought. _"What if she doesn't even recognize me?" _His Bloodshot eye and his red eye widened. _"If Zax told her what i think he did, she will come after me for revenge?"_ He had a tear in his eyes, as he just worked out what was about to come back and bite him in the ass. He then stated shaking violently, as if it was a seizure. _"No she will come back and she will see me for who i really am now, Dead-X." _He started getting more crazy as time passed, his eyes becoming more bloodshot from the evil that was building in him. But his love for her was always there for her, even if the alter ego didn't see it building up.

Kursed was almost to the position of the Star Fox, drifting in space looking more like a husk more than a ship. She had tears in her eyes, as she remembered what Fox said to her that day. "WHY DID HE WANT ME TO LEAVE!" She demanded out loud, rage building inside the torn vixen. "Why did i have to find this fox? This one that spared me from death?" She docked with the ship, entering the hangar. There was a lone figure walking from the entrance to the rest of the ship. _"Oh for fuck's sake. It's him." _Dead-X was halfway across the hangar already. She stepped out, feeling as if there should be at least a conversation. But there wasn't. Dead-X became more in focus, showing his insanity to her. "I shouldn't have come." She whispered. She went into defensive mode, Knowing that the insane fox would quickly attack her. She was right. The moment she went into defense, he attacked with a fly kick, almost taking her by surprise. She blocked and grabbed his leg and threw him into the direction of a bunch of crates. He smashed into them with a loud thud. "Why are you doing this, Dead-X? Why did you kill him? WHY?" She yelled as she charged at him. The fox was taken by surprise and was hit in across the face by her fist, knocking back again. "You don't understand." He replied, as he retaliated with a barrage of kicks, successfully knocking her down and send her sliding across the hangar. They were both crying with rage for each other, as she didn't know the truth and he didn't know what he had become. The battle was slowly going in Kursed's favor, but it changed quickly and eventaully came to a stalemate battle, until they were both exhausted. Kursed had to take the moment, and try to take him down. She rushed him with him yelping in surprise from the kicked to the stomach and face, not even bothering to retaliate against her neverending wave of kicks and punches. He was almost unconscious after the massive barrage of kicks and punches. "Why did you do it? Huh? Why did you have to kill him?" She yelled through teary eyes. His heart softened by the pain she was feeling "Does she still care about me?" His bloodshot eyes were no longer bloodshot, more blood stained now, but he didn't care about his injuries. He wanted to talk to her now, before she finishes him off. "You don't understand, Krystal." He managed to say before he was knocked out by a side-kick to the face. Before Kursed had kicked him once more she had heard him say Krystal, just as her leg crushed his face into the ground. "Oh no!" She said as she realised what she done, luckily she still remebered the layout of the ship, dragging him to the medbay._ "Why didn't he tell me sooner?" _She began as she felt more tears of sorrow not rage blinded her vision.

Fox woke up in a daze, not knowing where he was. His blurred vison was still trying to work out where he was, realising he didn't have his contact anymore, showing both of his emerald-green eyes. "Was it all a dream?" he wondered aloud, his voice barely able to make the words. "No, it wasn't." His eyes grew wide by the voice he recognised so long ago. He looked over to his right seeing a figure sitting next to him with no helmet on and with tears rolling down the slowly unblurring face. He was in so much shock that Krystal hadn't killed him, but spared his life._ "Did she return the favor?" _He wondered in his mind, feeling grief over what he had done to krystal. "Why did you spare me?" He groaned, as he saw the figure look over him. "Because i still love you Fox." Krystal managed to say, putting her paws over her eyes in sorrow. His eyes grew wide with realisation. _"She did hear me."_ He passed out from the pain.


	2. Chapter 2

Together again

Fox woke up again after the first conversation. He felt a lot better than the first time he woke up. But he looked over to where Krystal was sitting. She wasn't there. His eyes became wide and he started to panic. "Where is she? Where did she go?" He looked around the room for an explanation, there was nothing. He struggled to get up, because of his injuries that weren't fully healed. His heart was beating rapidly, even the machine attached to him had began to pick up high levels of stress building up. He detached himself from all the medical equipment, falling to the ground and picking himself back up again, a bandage fell off and revealed a deep wound which started bleeding immediately. "I HAVE TO FIND HER!" Fox panicked. He limped out of the medbay in search for her.

Krystal was on the bridge, looking through the diaries prior when she left. Most of them were still intact, including a picture of them on the bridge hugging with big smiles on their faces. She sighed at looking at the picture. "At least he didn't forget me, maybe there's still hope." She thought to herself, hoping there was better times ahead. A blimp on the bridges controls started glowing red. "Uh oh." She looked at what had caused the button to start flashing. It was coming from the medbay, there was an emergency. She immediately remembered Fox, was still in the medbay. She ran out of the bridge, worried sick something was happening to him. When she got there he was nowhere to be seen, leaving a few drops of blood leading down the hallway. _"PLEASE FOX! PLEASE BE OKAY!" _She yelled in her mind, hoping that her telepathy would get to him.

Fox felt an instant message in his mind, he wasn't sure what it was, but he was guessing it was Krystal. He was in the hangar about to turn back when his injuries gave up on him. He fell to the floor in pain, realising that his desperation had left a trail of blood going through from the medbay to the hangar. The only thing on his mind was Krystal, happy that she was still on the ship but worried he wouldn't be found.

Krystal was panicking so much as she followed the trail of blood. She could feel him getting weaker. There was still time to get him back to the medbay. She went into the hangar, discovering he was lying on his side, a small pool of blood starting to grow. She gasped at the sight of him lying there, not breathing. She picked him up and ran with his body towards the medbay. "Please Fox, please don't die on me. PLEASE!" Her tears swelling her eyes up again. She reached the medbay, putting him back on the bed and connected all the life support equipment back on him, his heart rate was below 20 when it began monitoring his heart rate. "Please be okay." Krystal cried. Fox's heart rate was slowly increasing. A sigh of relief came from the vixen's mouth, calming down considerably.

Fox opened his eyes for the third time. He realised he wasn't dead, so Krystal was definitely still on the ship. He got into sitting position and stared around the room. He looked to the right again, hoping she would be there. She was, but she was asleep. He looked at her and looked back at himself. "You fucking idiot Fox!" He said in his head. "Why didn't you just stay in the fucking medbay and waited." He started beating himself up. It had been over a week since their fight in the hangar and he was still upset over it. Suddenly Krystal moved slightly and opened her eyes. She looked straight at fox, who after blaming himself for what he did was crying. "Fox you're awake!" Krystal said with a heartwarming smile. Fox froze and looked at her through his teary eyes. "I-I'm Sorry for everything." He cried as Krystal gave him a hug. "Hey hey, It's alright." She reasurred him, stroking his head fur. He broke down and nestled deeper into Krystal's chest. "It's not alright! I hurt you and then i hurt you even more! I can't let it happen again! I love you!." Krystal started crying as well. "I love you too Fox!" They nestled deeper into each other, not letting go. Fox was the one that broke the hug. He did something he should have done long ago, something he had been holding onto for years. He kissed her as hard as he possibly could, letting his passion run wild for her. Krystal's eyes widened and then closed, embracing the deep passionate kiss. They kissed for what seemed like forever, until Krystal broke the kiss to come up for air. "Everything will be okay." She said as they hugged again. Tears were still running down Fox's face. From that day on he made a promise to himself to never let her go again.


	3. Chapter 3

Thoughts of the past

It has been two weeks that their battle had been resolved. Fox and Krystal finally together again, with not a single care in the world. Only they mattered. But angst and old memories are flooding back to haunt them.

Fox was asleep, groaning and twisting in his bed. The dream was having a turn for the worse. _"NO! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!" Fox yelled as the ship lifted out of the hangar. "Krystal please!" He begged. Krystal put on a demonic look, that scared him. "My name is Kursed, and Krystal is dead and so are you." Fox looked up as the ship's turrets locked onto him. Defeated and betrayed, he got to his feet and was hit by the massive blast of energy._ Fox yelled as he pulled away from the dream, panting heavily while sitting in a sweat soaked bed. He looked over where Krystal was supposed to be, she wasn't there. But he noticed something about the sweat on the other side of the bed. It wasn't his. He was startled by sobbing coming from down the hallway. He got up to take a look at what was going on. Krystal was kneeling on the floor, crying her heart out. "What's wrong Krystal?" She froze and turned to turn around, revealing her face to Fox which was filled with tears. Fox quickly picked her up from the floor and embraced her in a hug. "Hey hey sssshh, it's okay i'm here." Fox rocked her in his arms, trying to calm her down. She obviously had a bad dream like he did.

They both stayed up for the night, daring not to fall asleep in case of more nightmares. The next morning, they were visibly exhausted. Fox was about to drift to sleep but Krystal, who was still embracing him nudged him when she was about to drift to sleep. "Wow. What luck of having having those horrible dreams." Fox whispered to her. "What did you dream about, Fox?" He moved a little in the sofa, obviously disturbed from the dream. "I-I dreamed that you left me, but when i called you back you-." Fox stopped, feeling a deep feeling of sorrow wash over him. "What happened?" Krystal asked, starting to get worried about him as she sensed that his emotional turmoil flooded back. "You killed me." Her eyes widened, horrified by what Fox had said." She hugged him closely and whispered as she shook. "I would never do that Fox." Fox hugged her back. "I know you wouldn't, but enough about that dream. What about yours?" Krystal tried to remember her dream. She was too horrified by what she saw in her dream to even mutter a word, she quickly became alert. "I don't want to talk about it, let's just put it behind us ok?" Fox knew she wouldn't budge on the dream she had. It was probably more terrifying than his. "If you ever need to talk about it Krystal, i'm here for you."

It was almost a week that had past since their horrible nightmares, but the nightmares kept resurfacing. Fox decided to take their minds off the matter and take a trip to see old friends. Krystal hadn't said anything on the dreams she was having, which worried him.

They got out of the taxi that had dropped them in front of a big apartment building. Fox and Krystal walked up to the apartment's communicator. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Okay let's see." He looked through the details he wrote down. "Ah, here it is. Number thirty seven." They pressed the pad to communicate with the selected apartment. After a few seconds of waiting they heard someone respond. "Hey, who's there?" Fox smiled. It was good to hear Falco's voice again. "Hey it's me Fox and Krystal is with me as well." There was a pause on the intercom. "Foxie! Good to hear from you! Hang on, i'll be right there!" After a while of waiting, the glass door to the apartment opened. "Hey Falco." Krystal greeted. The avian raised a brow. "How did you guy's end u-." Fox quickly cut him off. "It's a long story, we'll fill you in later." Falco chuckled. "Wait till i tell everyone who has risen from the dead! But before i do that you wanna head out for some coffee? I need something to get me up." "Yeah that would be great Falco." They headed off down the street and reached a small shop. "Hey do you guy's want anything?" Fox pondered for a minute. "I could go with a coffee as well. How about you Krystal?" Krystal was focused on something in the distance, at least until Fox nudged her. "Huh? oh um... I'll have the same thanks." Fox and Falco looked at each other for a second until the avian shrugged and walked in. Fox and Krystal took a seat. "You alright? You've been distant since we got here, hang on i'll be right back." Krystal was in shock as she realised that her dream occurred here, at this area. Her eyes began to widen as Fox went across the road again to the shop where Falco was. She saw it flash before here eyes, as a vulpine came out of nowhere with a gun and pushed Fox to the ground, causing the gun to go off in Fox's chest. Krystal suddenly ran towards Fox, on the ground beside the road as the assasin ran off. Falco ran out of the shop with his gun in hand, hearing a gunshot. His eyes were in shock as she saw Fox lying there, hanging on for dear life as Krystal screamed for help. An ambulance blared in the distance as everything was in slow motion. Fox's eyes were blurry but he could see a two blue figures and a bunch more surrounding him as the muffled screaming and yelling were silenced. Fox blacked out.

A smiling vulpine was looking over the entire incident, clearly him who had killed Fox, as he watched the ambulance take the as it seemed, corpse and the two friends of the victim. He kept staring at the event in the distance until his communicator came on. "Is it done?" A unknown fox asked. "Yes sir. Dead-X has been neutralised." "Good. Now report back for your reward." The vulpine moved off the balcony, walking quickly into the shadows.


	4. Chapter 4

The investigaton

Fox was once again, on life support. He woke up on the stretcher that carried him in, coming in and out of consciousness. He could see Krystal and Falco looking at him in sheer horrified looks on their faces. He passed out again as he was put into a surgery immediately.

Krystal was crying as Falco tried to comfort her, but to his expectations was no good. She kept mumbling to herself. "I could've stopped it, i could've stopped it." She was a complete wreck as the doctor came back to tell them of the situation. Krystal and Falco both got up for the news. "He's in an stable condition now, but when we brought him in he was clinically dead before he got out of the ambulance. "Tears were pouring down Krystals's face as the avian's face went into complete rage over who had done this. A few agents came rushing in and took control of the situation. The leader of the agents turned to Falco and Krystal. "I know you must be taking this hard right now, but we need your full cooperation at this time." They both nodded. "Good. Now i have to tell you that we haven't found who has done this, but we have our best on this right this second. We are not going to release any information about your Friend, in case the bastard comes back to finish the job." The thought had taken a impact on Krystal who was now crying into Falco's arms. "We are going to find the son of a bitch no matter what." The agent added coldly. "Whether he's tied up or in a bodybag." Falco nodded. "We'd prefer if he was in a bodybag." The avian said through gritted teeth.

Fox was completely out of it when they brought him in. _"What the hell happened? I was walking across the road and then this guy came up to me with a gun! It was over before it even started." Fox thought to himself, trying to regain consciousness but with no success. "Guess i'm pretty banged up." His thoughts narrowed on the one thing that he just couldn't forget. "KRYSTAL!" He started to internally panick as he wondered what happened to her. But then something calmed his thinking down, as if he was injected with something. His mind trailed off._ The doctor had seen the heart rate increasing as the thought patterns built up, with the injury that Fox had sustained, was incredibly close to his heart, only by a mere half an inch. "If he keeps this heart rate up, he's going to go into cardiac arrest and die from blood loss." The nurse pressed an auto injector. It stopped his heart rate climbing, and kept it on a steady pace. "Jeez doctor, that was too close." The vixen calmed down, wiping her brow. "Yeah, but i wonder what made his heart rate rise so quickly?" The doctor wondered.

Back in the waiting room, Krystal and Falco watched the TV monitor, watching some program that was clearly not entertaining. Krystal wasn't even watching the monitor, she was worried about Fox. Falco was looking at the monitor with a frown. Krystal thought he was watching it but she looked into his thoughts. _"Fucking hell, i hope he's okay."_ Krystal heard from his mind, surprised that he was cursing so much in his head and not out loud. She felt a tear run down her eye, Falco noticed and turned to her. "How you holding up?" Krystal was surprised that he would even ask, considering he was a tough as nails sort of guy. "Okay i guess." She sniffled. Suddenly the doctor entered the room. "Alright, he's fine now, we managed to stop the bleeding and patch the wound up. But he won't be able to wake up for at least til tomorrow. I suggest you two get some sleep." Krystal relaxed a bit, at hearing the news. Falco put on a grin. "I knew he'd make it. He's too tough to die from a single shot." The doctor looked at him for a minute, wondering should he tell him it was half an inch from his heart. Krystal picked up his thoughts and her eyes widened. The doctor looked at her and sighed before he walked off into the long corridor.

The agent looked at the scene of the attempted murder, trying to find a clue. "Dammit not a damn thing." He cursed. His partner looked at him, a bit surprised by his interest in the case. "Don't you think you're making this case a bit personal?" His partner asked. "The concerned agent looked up. "You know what happened to me Phil. Same fucking place, same situation. Except my wife was attacked. She was lucky to have survived it. How would you feel huh?" Phil backed off for a minute until he saw a piece of teared clothing near the dried blood. "Hey what's that Casey?" The concerned Casey looked over at the piece of clothing, and it definitely wasn't the fox's clothing who was currently on life support. "Well, Phil." He smiled to himself. "I think we just found our first clue to this fucker."

The next day Fox was awake, but it wasn't Krystal or Falco first into the room, it was the agents. "How you feeling there?" Fox groaned a bit, still hurting from the freshly fixed wound. "Heh, i guess that answers that." Casey chuckled. Fox wasn't in the mood for his joke. He wanted to know where Krystal was. "Where is she?" He managed to croak out of his voicebox. "You mean the Blue Vixen? Well she's been down there for two days worried sick, so no need to worry about her safety, the avian is still there as well. A bit proud that bird is. Always boasting, but he is worried about you as well." Fox felt relief at the news. "Um but this is where we're going to have to talk serious. Do you have any idea who shot you?" Fox opened his eyes after relaxing. "Well not much, i think it was a dog, or other sort of canine. Brown with a stroke of black. That's all i can remember before the bastard shot me." Phil was writing every word he said. Okay we'll send in your friends now, thank you for your time." Fox was in joy as he heard him say that Krystal and Falco would be coming in. Krystal was dosing off when she saw the two agents walked towards them. She was immediately awake when they walked up to them with a smile. "He's all yours now, go easy on him. He's barely conscious as it is. Krystal and Falco powerwalked towards Fox's room, hoping to get a glimpse of him awake before he drifted back to sleep. But to their luck he was still awake. "Hey guy's." Fox said through a hoarse throat. "what a week, huh?" Krystal was already in tears when she saw him lying there, trying to focus on them. "Ha! i knew you would make it through!" The avian replied, with a grin on his beak. "I'd give you a punch, but you're still recovering." Fox tried to chuckle, but hurt his chest when he tried. "Krystal smiled as he tried his best to look okay. "So do you still have our coffee Falco?" Falco looked at Fox and chuckled. "Yeah, good one Fox. Forget the fucking coffee, man. You just got shot in the chest and already thinking things are back to normal. HA!" Fox smiled and then looked back at Krystal, trying to raise his hand to grab hers. She noticed and grabbed his hand and held it tightly. From that point on, she had to help Falco and the agents find out who did this to him, and she was already contemplating who could've done it. But for now they must try and spend their time better, like keeping Fox company.


	5. Chapter 5

Interrogations

Phil looked up at the eyewitness, who had saw to canine leave the scene shortly after shooting Fox. "He went in a south-east direction. Sorry i'm not much help, but i figured you needed to find this killer right?" Casey was in another room, looking at security footage from anything that had happened within the hour of the assassination. He looked through all the tapes, only to see the canine sprint towards an alleyway. He wondered. _"What if he stayed near the alleyway?" _Phil came into the room. "Anything?" Casey looked at the monitor, deep in thought. _"What if he did?"_ Phil tilted his head, figuring out he was focussed on the monitor. "Huh? Oh um.. no nothing but a far flung theory." They both sat down, grabbing their coffees and sipping them quietly. "What if he didn't leave the area? You know, the alleyway? Footage doesn't show anyone leaving in the past week, so the assailant could be still there." Phil pondered for a minute. "Okay let's do it."

The next day they investigated the alleyway, hoping for a new lead on the killer. They checked for any tech that could have been abandoned, then they came across a chip from a commincator. They looked to the opposite direction of the computer chip to see a destroyed communicator. "Well looks like the bastard disposed of the communicator, let's get back and check on this chip we found. Shortly after they got back, they started hacking the chip. "Ah ha! Got it!" The chip's contents was displayed on the monitor, to reveal a few files. "Let's look at them." The first one was a audio log, revealing the assailant's name. "Oh my god." Casey's eyes widened. "Fox is not going to believe who it was." Phil turned to him. "Should we even tell them?" Casey looked over his options. "Not yet, if they blow it by going straight in... we'll lose the lead forever." He looked at the picture of the assailant, after searching the name. "After all this, the bastard comes back to get revenge, pathetic."

Fox woke up after the long sleep he had. He was excited about tomorrow, because he would be able to leave hospital, even if under protective custody.

He looked through the room, it was empty. He frowned. "That's odd. Where's Falco and Krystal?" He shrugged and reached for the remote, trying to find a good program. His wound was fully healed and all they needed were a few more tests on him. He felt stronger than usual, which made him concerned. "The other day... i can't remember." He once again got rid of the thought, just as Krystal walked in. "Hey Fox! How are you feeling?" He smiled at her_. "She's a considerate one."_ He winked at her. "Never felt better. Where's Falco?" She sat down and sighed. He's off planet, trying to find everyone you know, for a reunion." He shook his head with a massive grin. "Bloody hell. He doesn't blink twice, does he?" She smiled. "Yeah, but it gives us a bit of time to ourselves." Fox blushed. "Yeah it does." Fox managed to get out of bed, and go for a walk around the hospital with Krystal in hopes of getting rid of this massive amount of energy.

The doctor looked on as they walked. He smiled, but with a devious purpose behind it. _"He doesn't remember. Good. That makes the experiment a success."_ The devious doctor walked off with a file that had confidential on it. He opened it to reveal the title. PROJECT 'FOX'.


	6. Chapter 6

Reveal

Fox was once again, in his room. He was in the bathroom taking a shower. Krystal was sitting outside, making him feel more comfortable than he had in years. It was almost past eight when he got out. "How long was i in there?" He looked at the clock. He shook his head in disbelief._ It had been over two hours_. "Okay..." He knew he must've blanked out or something. He suddenly fell to the floor, writhing in pain in his head and back. "Wha-t T-TH-E HELL?" He started violently shaking, his eyes growing dimmer by the second. "This can't be..." His eyes opened again, revealing his pupils were gone and his eyes had gone completely black. He was still conscious, but could feel a new personality. His body started shaking again, but with new cause. His teeth had become incredibly sharp, his claws were now out of his paws made of metal, his ears were now taller and his normal coat of fur was dark red. His mind blanked out.

Krystal was in the other room about to doze off, until she heard crashing and yells coming from the bathroom. She went to open it, but it was locked. She could hear his screams becoming distorted, as if the devil was possessing him and then reached a silence. She backed off from the door, as it started getting bashed from the inside. "Fox?" She asked, hoping to hear that the lock was just broken and he slipped or something. That was not the case. The banging became more and more violent, slowly splintering as it was bashed. Suddenly the bashing stopped and a evil mutter was voiced. "Fox? Are you okay?" Suddenly the door was smashed with one big bang, flying off it's hinges and flying towards Krystal. Krystal ducked at the last minute and saw the door splinter into pieces as it hit the wall. She turned around to see a mutated figure stand out of the bathroom. It's fur was soaking wet, and the details were made clear straight away. She was so terrified that she fell backwards onto the bed. The figure came out from the dark room and moved towards her menacingly. "Please! Fox! Don't!" Krystal pleaded, as it came out of the shadow, revealing a twisted version of Fox. The voice Fox heard was repeating in his mind. _"Please! Fox! Don't!" _The message was played in his head nearly twenty times, as he was about to kill her with his sharp claws. He hesitated. Suddenly a security guard had entered the room with a pistol in hand. Don't move, uh whatever you are..." The creature turned away from Krystal to the guard, letting out a huge roar before the guard opened fire. Fox dodged and picked the guard up by the throat, claws going through the throat of the helpless guard. Blood smeared across the corridor as Fox threw his limp body out into the reception area. Fox glanced at Krystal, who was shielding herself in an attempt to survive. He looked at her for another second before smashing through the wall, entering the city streets. He disappeared.

The next day the police force was investigation the crime scene, with Krystal in the waiting room, shaken by the horrors of last night. She looked up to see Slippy and Falco, who were in complete confusion. Falco looked at her and asked. "What the fuck happened?" She burst into tears after reliving the horrors she saw, knowing the mutated creature was Fox. She looked up at Slippy and Falco, who were still standing over her. "The creature that had attacked, it was... FOX!" She broke down again, with Slippy and Falco sitting down next to her in hopes of comforting her. Falco was wondering to himself how the footage that he saw the cops watch on a monitor, was Fox.

Fox was face down in a sewer line, still twitching after what had happened. He got up slowly and looked around. He had no idea where he was, just that he wasn't in hospital anymore. His veins started building up, the pain coming back. "What the hell is this?" He asked, horrified as his body began to mutate again into a monster. This time he was full in control. He stared at himself as the transformation happened, he was still the same height, only different. He then came up with a plan. "I need a suit." He thought, knowing if people just saw him as a bounty hunter, he would be less considered a threat to people. He attempted to hide all the mutation with a robe he found on a clothesline. He quickly went to a shop that sold body armour, weapons and other tough materials. Good thing he knew where to find it, after years of never coming to this planet. He entered the shop an hour later. "So what do ya want?" A avian with a scar across his eyes, looking at him with suspicion. He got what he needed to get after a few minutes, daring not to speak in case his distorted voice came back. He handed over the money for the clothing and armour, a full battle merc outfit with a helmet with a black material woven over the armour to make it tougher. He changed in the back alley, before anyone could see him. He looked at the claws he had. "They're made of metal?" He started having flashes of torture and experimentation from that day he couldn't remember. He started crying after he realised he would never be able to see his love the same way again, otherwise he would have to show his form. He couldn't do that to her. But he couldn't just leave her, he made a promise. He made a plan: Kill the person that tried to kill him before this, find the one who did this to him as well and keep his identity as a bounty hunter. He had to think of a name for himself. _"Dead-X? Oh hell no, that was torture even being him." _He had a idea after that one._ "How about...Redeemer?" _It came to him, perfect for what he had in mind.

Krystal was once again, alone in the universe. Knowing that he had disappeared forever, she would have to make herself scarce and cold-hearted-Again. She would have to go back to the name: Kursed. She wanted to stay with that one. One that people still feared. She said goodbye to Slippy and Falco solemnly as she disappeared without a trace. "Don't dissappear again, he might be still out there!" She knew he wasn't there anymore, leaving slippy and Falco standing in the apartment. "Where could i possibly go?" The idea came hard and quick: Find the bastards responsible for her suffering and make them pay for what they had done, unknowingly that Fox or 'Redeemer' had the same idea in mind. She knew one thing she would need now: A partner. Or at least a person that could help her with her chances of survival.

Redeemer, now on board a space station, was looking for a new ship for his missions ahead. He was looking at all the heaps of junk he could possibly buy. He shook his head in disgrace as he looked at most of the ships, most of them didn't have weapons or couldn't even fly for more than a day without maintenance. Kursed was aboard the same space station, hoping to find herself a worthy partner. She had kept all that Kursed had. The ship, the armour, weapons and the money, that was enough to hire at least three partners. She entered the ship bay, where they were selling off useless ships. She spotted a man in black armour, shaking his head in disgrace at the ships they had for sale. _"He has a good eye for ships, unfortunately there isn't a single one useful for him here." _Kursed suddenly had a crazy idea._ "Maybe i should recruit him, he's got sharp blades for close battles, so he's not someone to be fucked with."_ She took the thought seriously and walked up to the bounty hunter, who was still obseving the hunks of twisted metal. "Hey." The man turned around, suddenly surprised who it was. _"Krystal? No..."_ Redeemer thought. "Hey, can i help you?" He put on a mental barrier so she couldn't see in his mind. "In fact, yes you can. I'm in need of a partner to accompany me on a mission. I was wondering if you were up to it." Redeemer looked at her, before crossing his arms. "Yeah? But i don't come cheap... I'll take up to Twenty thousand credits. Kursed gasped at her luck. _"I thought it would be a larger sum, but he doesn't look to be in a hurry."_ She shook his hand and looked at him, trying to retract his claws. "Deal. But is something wrong with your Blades? They look like they don't want to retract. "Yeah, they're actually my claws not my blades. Sorry about that." He said shyly in his distorted voice. Her eyes grew wide. "How are they your claws?" He edged away a bit. "I don't want to talk about it." He said defensively. She shook her head. "Okay, forget it. But you will give me an answer sooner or later, come on. Let's get out of this scrap heap." They headed back to her ship, leaving the spaceport in search for revenge.


	7. Chapter 7

Search and destroy

Redeemer and Kursed were looking for their target. Redeemer was enraged by the fact Krystal had become Kursed once again. He didn't dare to tell her about him and her. It would make things even more difficult he figured. Kursed was wondering what this bounty hunter was hiding, his mind barriers were so powerful that she couldn't even get a first thought from him. This made her curious, wanting to ask about his past and find his personality that way.

Redeemer was in his quarters on her ship, the ship consisting of four crew quarters, amedbay and cockpit. He was asleep when she came in. She could hear him muttering words in his helmet like: Why?, Starfox, die and forget. Starfox had got her thinking about the past, and then she asked herself. _"What is his affiliation with Starfox?"_ Redeemer suddenly woke up with a yell. This made her jump in her boots. He saw her standing in the doorway, obviously listening in on his dreams. She crossed her arms asked the most unexpected question he could think of. "Do you know Starfox?" He looked at her, his memories flooding back as he tried to find an excuse. "I had a run-in with them." She raised an eyebrow. "Friendly or hostile?" He thought about his options. If he told her that he was hostile, she would probably kick him off the ship or worse: kill him. His other choice would also make him seem like a tie to the past and still try and get rid of him. He thought carefully. "I was friendly at the time, i wasn't in my bounty hunter years back then." He thought that would cover it. Kursed looked at him. "What do you know about them?" He sighed after he figured where his was going. "Yeah i knew them." He knew there would be more questions. "What did you think about Fox McCloud?" He thought quickly. Well, he was a war hero and he had the right idea. But there was something about the guy. He was really shy about that babe Krystal." He knew he had to say something like that but wanted to kick himself for it. "Really? You picked that up off the guy? What about the rest of the crew? He had to end this conversation quickly. "Uh, i didn't meet anyone else but Fox and Krystal. You definitely know there was something between them. I mean, that guy was so shy around her you'd think he would've proposed." Kursed was acting strange now. She went from ice to marshmallow, he wanted to tell her so badly at that moment that he loved her, but he knew he couldn't. She quickly walked out, after the conversation. She obviously discovered she lost the ice cold shell for a minute. Kursed kicked herself. "Dammit, don't let that happen again." She felt so much passion for Fox, she missed him so much. She went to her quarters and shut the door, laying on the bed. She cried herself to sleep.

Later she awoke, to find Redeemer knocking on her door. "Hey are you going to tell me about our mission? You haven't told me anything yet. Hello? Are you okay in there?" Kursed smiled. Something about Redeemer reminded her about fox, probably the atitude and the knowledge in ships. She opened the door and motioned for him to follow. They reached the cockpit, and began telling the mission's objectives. "I managed to hack the agent's database for information, and i found out that the target is none other than Wolf O'Donnel. Redeemer almost gasped in surprise that his enemy had tried to kill him so brutally. His anger rose extremely high, even Kursed noticed significantly. "Old friends?" He rose out of the co-pilot seat. "No... Old enemies." He said with a deadly cold tone in his voice. Kursed was taken aback by the anger for Wolf. Redeemer walked back to his quarters silently. "Oh yeah, i've managed to get a lock on him. He's on a Asteroid base. Turn's out he has about thirty men on the rock." He kept walking. He was hoping to get his hands on him before Kursed does, because he wanted to kill him.

"Okay we're here." Redeemer looked on to see the asteroid. "They can't detect us because of the invisibility device we have." He loaded his rifle. "Let's go straight in and take that fucker down." Kursed was surprised how much Redeemer hated him, which led to a advantage for her to get answers from him. "I have to interrogate him, he might know about the dissappearance of an old friend of mine." Redeemer's rage stopped for a second as he noticed she was talking about Fox. "If only this didn't happen to me." He whispered, as he looked at himself. Kursed overheard him. "What did you say?" He quickly went back into rage mode. "Nothing." She stared at him, still trying to get in his head. No luck. They started to uncloak and bomb the base on the asteroid, surprising Star Wolf. They managed to land the ship in a hangar that hadn't been destroyed by the bombing run. "Okay let's do this shit." Redeemer yelled, as he ran for cover. Five Star Wolves came out and were immediately engaged. Two were killed before they got past the entrance, while the other three were scattered across the hangar. Kursed silently go into ambush position as Redeemer kept firing round upon round at them. "He's bloody relentless." She whispered. She came out of cover and ambushed the men who were busy with Redeemer. She fired, quickly killing them all without retaliation. Redeemer went solo through the rest of the ship, blaster fire echoing in the distance. Kursed looked for Wolf, hoping to find out why he did what he did.

Wolf was in his office, checking the casualties rise as Redeemer went through his ship from 1 to 23, and another four were killed during the bombing. He sighed as he knew what was coming to bite him in the ass. "Fucking bounty hunters." A gun was put to the back of his head and he waited for death to take him, but death hadn't come. "Why did you kill Fox?" He smiled and realised who it was. "Krystal. I know you want answers, but it was just this: business. If wasn't i wouldn't have killed him. Kursed was taking advantage of the situation. "Who ordered the hit?" He chuckled. "The target was Dead-X, AKA Fox. The contractor didn't know it was Fox, and he needed Dead-X for a bigger purpose." Kursed held the gun tightly. "Where is he and what's his name?" He sighed again. "He's a doctor, guy ran experiments on certain patients and most ended in death. He's on the planet where i shot Fox, he wanted to experiment with him when he was in hospital. Kursed's eyes grew wide again and she became enraged by this. She pulled the gun up and then came down with a massive force, knocking Wolf out. Redeemer came into the room shortly. Kursed stood up and started for the hangar. "Let's go, i got the info." Redeemer looked at Wolf in dusgust and took off his helmet and spat on him quickly before putting his helmet back on before Kursed saw his face. They went back for the hangar, got in the ship and left the godforsaken asteroid.


	8. Chapter 8

Beware the Doc

Redeemer was once again in his quarters, looking up at the ceiling. He wanted to have the chance to finish Wolf off, but didn't bother. "It didn't matter anyway..." Redeemer told himself. Kursed came into his room once again. He seemed dissappointed that he didn't get revenge, and was actually proud for him not to, even after their unknown troubled history.

"Hey. Can i ask you something?" Kursed asked, wanting a straight answer. "Shoot." Redeemer seemed less angry ever since she entered the room. "Why didn't you finish Wolf off? He sighed and looked at the ceiling again. "Not worth it." Kursed looked at him, feeling it was true. "Can i ask you the last question?" Redeemer knew it was going to be personal. "Can you take off your helmet? You've seen me, but i haven't seen you." Redeemer got up from sitting down, surprised from the question that would lead him to losing his identity as Redeemer and would most likely end up back with Krystal, he wanted to after all this time together and she deserved to know. "Are you sure? It will really scare you, and may not even be what you think will terrify you. Are you sure you want to know who i am?" She nodded, brushing her hair back to get a clear view. Redeemer sighed heavily, as if really depressed. Sad even. He put his hands on the black helmet, and pulled it off slowly and threw it on the bed. Kursed gasped.

"F-Fox?" She backed away slightly, seeing a ghost she thought she would never see again. "Yeah, it's me." He looked up, his eyes were different than last time, they were bloodshot and had their pupils now. His claws were now made of what they should be now, the ears were still tall and the dark red hair remained. He didn't know what to say, whether to advance or to stay his step. It was Krystal who made the first move, she ran up to him and hugged him tightly. Tears were streaming down both their faces. "I told myself never to leave you Krystal. I love you." There was moment of pure emotion and bliss that passed through them, finally reunited with each other at last. "I love you too, Fox. When the moment they thought they were seperated, their love for each other strenghened tenfold, never letting go. "We need to find the doctor. He's the key behind this." Fox said, breaking the embrace, fully knowing the bastard would stop at nothing to kill them both. Krystal nodded. "We might have to bring some old friends with us as well." Fox smiled. "Falco and Slippy, they're definitely in. We just need to get everyone together for this. It's time to unite once more." Flames were burning in Fox's eyes, anger for what the bastard had done to him, will now be justified.

The next two weeks Fox and Krystal were planning how to take the doctor down, because he would definitely have backup. Falco and Slippy were still at Falco's apartment when they came back, and joined the team straight away. Katt joined the team and apparently she and Falco had been seeing each other for a while now. Slippy laughed unexpectedly and got punched in the chest for it. Falco eventually turned his head back to Fox and asked. "What the plan Foxie?" Fox thought it over very quickly. "If the doc knows that me and Krystal hit Wolf's base, then he would have relocated by now. But when Krystal told me where she got her information from, which were those agents who were trying to find the culprit, they might be already onto him, because the file logs that were lodged in the information and they would have found out the asshole's real name by now." Krystal put up a brow. "But do you think they worked out who it was? I mean they were probably more focused on Wolf rather than the person that hired him." Fox frowned. "No i think those agents are smarter than that, otherwise we're screwed..."

The agents were on a space station, orbiting right next to one of the moon's of the planet that Fox and the others were on. "Do you think we should of called for back up?" Phil asked, knowing full well they had no idea what this doc was capable of, besides making Fox dissapear and managing to get a freak to attempt to kill her, not knowing it was actually Fox. "Yeah, i know we should of called for back up, but it's too late." Our ship is on the moon and we are being jammed.

They moved into a massive part of the station, comparing to the hangar. But something was off, blood had stained the floor and there were all kinds of marks on the walls, and a few dead freaks, like the one on the footage. "I don't like this one fucking bit man." Phil was shaking so much it stopped him from moving. "Come on man, we can't stop now. Not in the middle of this shit." Casey reassurred him. "Besides i think the doc already knows we're her- AAGH!" Casey was knocked off his feet by a massive creature, resembling a mutated wolf, a lot bigger than the one they saw on the footage. "CASEY, RUN!" Casey got up quickly just in time before the claws of the beast went straight through the floor, which would have easily killed him. He pulled out his pistol and started firing at the creature, but to no avail, the burns from the laser pistol had not done anything but leave a few singed spots on the weird coloured fur. He jumped out of the way as the creature went for him again, severely stabbing his leg into a wall, pinning him. "AAAGHH! shit!" "I'm coming casey!" He looked in the corner of his eye to see his partner fire at the creatures back. It screamed in pain, revealing the back as a weak spot. "YEAH EAT THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Phil yelled until he had to wait for his pistol to cool down. The creature was hurt, but not down. It turned its attention from Casey, who was now slumped on the floor, screaming in pain, as the creature charged at Phil. Phil had no chance when he tried to dodge, on being impaled right through the chest against the floor, leaving a massive squelch of blood and guts everywhere. His world went black just as the monster was about to pull his head off, throwing the severed head at this partner. Casey looked at his partner, horror on the deaceased man's face, and his as well. He started limping out of the hangar, hoping to get away, sobbing violently as the fear struck unmercilessly. He managed to close the door behind him just in time, before the creature lept at him, smacking it's nose into the metallic door.

Fox and Krystal knew something was up, they had managed to find the agents' ship, abandoned on the moon that was nearby to a old space station. _"Oh shit..."_ He thought to himself, knowing that the agents' had walked staright into their graves. "Hey Fox! You never did tell me what happened to you and Krystal after the incident at the hospital." Falco asked, guessing he would not get a answer to the question. The vulpine looked at him. "Now's not the time, and besides i'm not going to tell you, neither is Krystal." He guessed right as they flew their ships closer to the space station.

"TARGET LOCKED." An automated voice sounded over their communicators. "Wha-?" Before Fox could say the confused word he was about to utter, a massive amount of drones had been activated, approaching them to engage. "FOX! Me, Slippy and Katt will take care of them, you get your ass to the hangar." Falco yelled, as he engaged the drones with everyone else. "I NEED HELP GUYS!" Slippy yelled, as about five of the drones were on his tail. Falco rolled his eyes in frustration as Fox and Krystal quickly boarded the space station. "GOD DAMMIT SLIPPY! HOW THE HELL DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING ON A REGULAR BASIS!" Falco yelled, clearly more annoyed at the fact that this happened to him everytime they went on mission. "I'm sorry Falco..." He smacked his haed in frustration and continued to bail his toady ass out of trouble. Again.

Fox laughed just as he got in the hangar, lsoing contact. Krystal was giggling a bit too, as they both exited their ships and made their way to the exit of the hangar. They walked on for a bit, rifles at the ready. Fox sighed as he looked at his rifle. "It's been way too soon since i have to use these." Krystal shared his thoughts as well, hoping this would be the last time they would have to go through a battle with a rifle. "Yeah, you and me both Fox." Fox was now wondering how it had come to this, standing alongside Krystal, the one he loved, Falco and the gang dogfighting outside and the sheer fact they had to hunt this fucker down. "I can't believe this is happening Krystal, i just want to have my quiet life with you." She blushed as they turned another corner, the eerie silence still gripping onto them. Fox was getting more determined to find the doc and put a bullet in his face. No questions, no coversation, just a bullet in the fuckers head. He shook the thought and walked on.

Casey was leaning against the wall, losing blood from the massive wound in his upper leg, feeling colder and his consciousness slipping away. He cried to himself for leading them into a trap. "Why? why was i so stupid and didn't see that coming?" He started shaking, looking at his pistol, wondering whether to put a bullet in his heart. The memory of his friend's head in his lap, as it was severed and thrown, showing the horrifying look on his face. He broke down again into a massive tidal wave of tears, knowing he placed their lives at risk. "How could i have done that? oh god, please forgive me..." He heard footsteps coming towards the corner of the hallay, he took out his pistol and pointed it in the direction, scared that it was that... thing just waiting to finish him off. He held the gun in a tightened grip. "I'm not letting it kill me, i'd rather die at my own hands..." He looked up again to see shadows coming around the corner, then he realised who it was. "F-Fox?"

Fox looked at the scared, half dead agent on the floor. He knew that without medical attention, he would die in about an hour, if not less. "Agent Casey? What happened?" Krystal ran over to him, trying to stop the bleeding with a bandage. "I-it w-was that thing... in there..." He motioned towards the dented door, scared of opening it again. "Where's your back up?" Fox asked, trying to look without feeling sick at the sight of the overbled wound. "H-he's dead, just like i'm gonna be." Casey was starting to shake the coldness away. "Fox, C-can y-yoy promise me s-something?" Fox turned around with a weak smile. "What is it?" The agent looked at his for the last few seconds of his life. "Ple-ease... b-bury m-me ne-xt to m-my wife." Fox nodded solemnly at the agent. "I promise." Casey smiled, just as he died, leaving to see a tunnel, there was his wife and his partner and his fallen friends, waiting for him to cross over.

Fox looked at the now dead Casey, a smile on his face, looking peaceful even when he died a painful, antagonising death. He knew he would make it up to him, somehow. He and Krystal walked towards the door, not knowing what had happened to kill Casey and his partner so quickly.


	9. Chapter 9Prologue 1

Fox McCloud was sick of his life. He was sick of Starfox. He was sick of everything. Hell he even wanted to commit suicide he hated it that much, but it was not the last time either. He walked across the hangar of the Great Fox. "What do i do? Everyones gone. Falco, Slippy and Peppy are gone." He then looked back at all the times they had. He sighed as he looked at the pictures in his room. Mostly all of them were him and Krystal. He broke down into tears as he looked at the picture the day he actually asked her to join the team, ending up later taking her off the team which turned into his worst mistake. He looked at his pistol on the bed. He walked over and put it to his head, shaking violently. Tears were dropping down his face now, leaving a puddle of tears on the floor. He clicked the safety off and closed his eyes.

Fox was about to do it. He had nothing. Not even Rob, who had broken down due to lack of repairs and maintenance. The Great Fox itself had seen better days as well. He looked at the pistol he had at his head. "What if i faked my death?" He wondered aloud, he had thought about it, but it was a point of no return. He looked at his pistol again and then walked out of the room and down to the armory. "Fuck it. I'm going to do it, it's this or suicide." He knew he couldn't be Fox anymore. No one was coming back. Everyone had a home, but he didn't, he had a empty shell of a ship. The reality hit him again as he took all the explosives and placed them over most of the major parts of the ship, which would end with the ship exploding, leaving no trace of him either. He had already changed the ID of his Arwing with an older one, hell he had it painted black instead of blue so he had it all sussed from the start. He smiled weakly as he got into his plane. "Goodbye Fox." He took off in his ship, detonating the Great Fox to oblivion. He realised that his fighter had enough fuel to make it to a unknown system, one that he wasn't known at. "Good." He murmered as the Great Fox exploded above the moon of a habited planet. He looked back with tears in his eyes. "Goodbye Krystal."

He looked down at this new planet he was about to land on. Luckily there was a small colony for him to land there. He had his ship refueled and dyed his fur brown, instead of its normal colour. "Don't want anybody to recognise me, otherwise i'll be in deep shit." He went down to a local bar for a drink before he could get some work, illegal or not. He looked at the TV and smiled when he saw the report. "The Great Fox had exploded over orbit of the large colony of Yilena two days ago, with a new report that the one of the most reknown hero's of Corneria had perished in the blast. Thats all we have for now, join us next time for future updates." Most of everyone in the bar went silent when they heard the report, slowly taking drinks and talking about the incident. Fox walked over to a bar stool and ordered a drink. "Helluva thing to happen to Fox eh?" Fox looked up at the bartender who had a serious look on his face. "Yeah, poor guy, i hear he didn't even have a family." Fox replied, realising he wasn't Fox anymore. "Yeah, the guy died alone, the funeral is going to take place on Corneria with only rumours of Falco and Slippy going, don't know about anyone else from his old team." Fox sighed about what the bartender said, knowing full well that everyone on Corneria was going to be sad about this. He walked out of the bar and headed for the nearest bounty hunter station he could find, thanks to information from the bartender for his experience in knowing the colony very well.

He walked into the door of the bounty hunter hovel, few bounty hunters managed to look at him and say. "Look, more meat for the meat grinder." or "Bet he doesn't last a day." He looked on and found himself looking at the counter. "Hey any jobs?" The Feline behind the desk looked at him carefully. "Yeah but are you up for it?" "Hell yeah i am." He replied with a enthusiastic look on his face. The feline laughed. "Kid, i'll be honest, you don't look like you will even finish a mission. But i'll give you it anyways." He looked at the information on the datapad. Reward: 6500 Credits. Number of men: 4. Risk level: Medium. He looked at it as he looked at the info and walked to his plane.

The target was apparently on Corneria, a place he did NOT intend on visiting. He put his disguised clothes, looking more like an assassin rather than a bounty hunter. He was thinking about what he would call himself, he thought of a few but one stood out. Redeemer. He smiled at the name, but he would also have to think of a civilian name, in case he couldn't use Redeemer. "John Greyall should do." He said aloud. It was a name that instantly came to him, as if it was there in his brain already. He looked at his Pistol and his equipment for the mission. He was landing on the pad, giving the people false info like his name and of the sorts, when he saw his targets leaving the spaceport. Soon after filling out the forms, he jogged out of the spaceport and stalked his targets.

They moved into a dark alleyway with heaps of cover. "Too easy." John chuckled, taking in his new identity. He targeted the one with the rifle first and fired the first shot. The others saw their friend fall to the ground and took cover. John smiled, as he slid into cover, firing his pistols at a garbage container two of them had hid behind. He jumped on the closer cover and fired on the lone target who didn't even have chance to respond. He fell back into the cover as the other started firing at him. He aimed at one as he fell and planted one right between the vulpine's eyes. John only had one more target left. This target was running from him with no escape possible. He panicked and fired his pistol at John. John dodged and shot his hand, leaving him defenceless. He picked him from the floor. "What do you want from me?" He said fearfully. John looked at him. "Redemption." As he pulled out his combat knife on this target, slashing his neck. The dead vulpine fell to the ground with a small thud as he walked out, going back to the small colony to get his reward.

He got back two days later, back in the hovel. The bounty hunters turned again whispering. "Beginner's luck." or "Boy's got talent." He smiled at the last one, knowing that killing four targets was impressive, especially for a beginner. The feline looked up, surprised to see him alive. "Wow kid you actually did it. Here's your reward." The feline looked up again to ask him something. "What name do you go by?" "Redeemer." He stated coldly. The feline looked at the vulpine who said it. "Well its got a pretty good ring to it. Very well, it will be your name if we ever have to refer to you again." He looked down again. "Do have anymore work?" The feline looked up again, surprised that the vulpine was looking for so much work. "Yeah here you go, maybe this one will be a bit harder for you. He looked at the datapad again. Reward: 12000 Credits. Number of men: 7. Risk: High. Conditions: Kill the leader and bring his head back. He was surprised at the conditions, they were different but not by much. He once again set off for the coordinates of the targets, this time his equipment was a bit better. He managed to find a grenade on one of the victims of the last bounty. "Should be useful." He smiled.

He reached the coordinates to find a space station, floating out in the middle of space. "Odd, i'm not getting a signal from the station." He wondered. He docked immediately, not staying out in the open reaches of space. He set out on foot through the station. He found the leader choking one of the others. "You fail me one more time, there won't be another time." He yelled at the top of his lungs as he ditched the scared avian across the room. Fox looked at the larger group shitting themselves in the corner. "Perfect." He whispered as he reached for his grenade and threw it at them. The explosion rocked the station, as well as killing five out of seven of the targets, easily. He chuckled as he reached for his pistol and shot the leader in the chest, who was still wondering what the hell happened. The other target yelped and tried to run away, which ran straight into John's knife, leaving a hole right through the avian's head. He went over to the wounded leader, who was lying on his side. "Who are you?" John looked at him. "Your worst nightmare." he pulled out his knife and decapitated him, becoming gruesome and gritty. John wiped most of the blood off him. He put the head in a seperate pack and took off going back to collect his reward once again.

"Are you fucking serious?" The feline looked at the vulpine, who hadn't cleaned the blood out of his fur yet. He dropped the packed with a sickening thud. "Here's your bounty by the way." He smiled as he took the credits. He felt the need to go on vacation now, the last two jobs had worn him out and he needed rest. "I'll be back later for another bounty." He walked out of the hovel as bounty hunters stared at him, not believing that a new guy had finished off two deadly missions within a week. They stared at their drinks and forgot about the bag with a head inside, sitting on the desk.

Fox needed a holiday, so he decided to go to Corneria. He knew that the past wasn't going to catch up with him soon, so he decided to rent a room for a week for a cheap price as well and have a look around for new things to do.

He filled his room with his belongings that he kept after starfox and Fox McCloud. All he took was his pistol, a few sets of clothes, his knife and the picture. He didn't want to keep the picture, but he felt compelled to, as if Fox wanted it as his last request. He shook his head and put it in the bathroom ledge. He turned on TV to get familiar with whats been happening in the past week. "Oh shit i forgot to see the footage of the funeral..." He completely forgot, especially after the bountys. He decided to watch who came from the channel that was still mourning his death. He looked at the footage at teh funeral. Only Peppy, Falco, Slippy and a few soldiers were there. He looked around on the footage, hoping to see her there at least for a second. She wasn't there. He shook his head. "Wow, she's either upset or still mad at me." He sighed, letting a lone tear fall down his face. After looking back on what he done, he felt like a real bastard. He kept looking at the footage on TV and then he saw her. She was there. Standing by the entrance, unable to sit with everyone else. He barely recognised her, since she wasn't revealing her face on the footage. "So she was there..." He whispered.


	10. Chapter 10Prologue 2

_**Authors Notes: Sorry about the last chapter having nothing to do with the one before, but it occured to me that I didn't explain what happened at the start for Fox and Krystal to get where they were at the beginning, also i'm sorry for any spelling errors. I can't do too much except proofread, because of i'm using wordpad to do these chapters. So to clear this confusion up, this is a prologue and i can't do much about spelling errors that i missed except edit them later on. Thank you for all your comments.**_

_**Earlier, when Fox was reported dead.**_

Krystal looked at the report in horror after hearing that Fox perished. All that they showed was amateur footage of the burning wreckage falling from this skies. She didn't want to believe it, but it was true. Fox was dead. She turned off the TV and walked out of the room, packing her stuff. "Where are you going?" It was Wolf, standing at her door with panther walking off with not so much a whisper. "I don't know, i-i just need some time alone." She choked through tears. "You know, i always thought it would be me killing Fox, but something about the way he just perished in the explosion just doesn't add up." He continued, trying not to push the boundaries of Krystal, unless he wanted a good punch in the face. She packed her stuff and got in her Cloudrunner. "One more thing Krystal, i know its hard to say after whats happened..." Wolf walked up to her ship. "...You do know that Fox always loved you know." Wolf knew he was hitting the boundaries, but he didn't really care, he hated saying all this stuff about Fox, his long enemy, who died at the hand of his own ship blowing up. She took off and said back to him. "I know."

_**Back to the present time.**_

John looked out his window. He looked at the city lights and the traffic going by. He decided to go out to a local pub, to get smashed and maybe go back to the rental and sleep at least one good night. He hadn't been able to sleep since he got to Corneria, his conscience giving him a guilt trip about Krystal, because of what he did. He sighed and got to the pub, ordering a few drinks, one at a time. He had already downed two when a Vixen came through the door and sat three stools away from him, separated by a avian who was about to pass out from drinking. He looked at her, something was strangely familiar about the girl, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He drank his third beer like water and ordered more for himself. He kept thinking about the Vixen that sat on the other side of the blind drunk avian. The avian tried to get up and walk out the door, but couldn't get up. He decided to give the avian a hand walking home. "Hey cheersssh buuddy!" The avian slurred. He looked at the avian with a smile on his face, almost about to piss himself laughing at the fact the avian was so blind drunk. "Yo-You knoww, you look like Fox, my ooldd buuddy, ya knoow." John looked at the avian and realized that it was Falco, with Krystal right behind him the whole time. He gulped, knowing this could go bad if he slipped up. "Nah sorry man, but i'm not Fox. Where do you live?" The avian had passed out. The vixen laughed. "Don't worry i know where he lives, i'll show you." They helped carry the drunk avian to an apartment, with a toad standing on the porch. "Oh my god, not again..." The toad chuckled. John looked at him and realized it was Slippy. "Cheers for bringing him home and all... mister...?" "John Greyall." He quickly replied. The Vixen looked at him curiously. "Would you like to come in?" He was almost about to say yes but logic took control. "Sorry but i got to get home as well." She laughed and walked up the stairs. "No i think you're coming in." He gulped shyly as knew he couldn't say no whether he liked it or not.

He dragged the avian onto a bed and laid him on his side, in case he vomited, which he did, all over John's pants. "Oh no." Krystal laughed at the vulpine who was now trying to wipe the vomit off him, but it spread onto his hands and fur. "You'll have to take a shower, John." He looked at her. "Nah don't worry about it..miss..?" He tried making it as if he didn't know them. "Krystal. But no you will have to take a shower John, you'll be a laughing stock if people see you." She giggled, walked him to the shower and gave him a towel. "Here. And i'll wash your pants." Krystal seemed as if she was trying to keep him here, but he didn't really care now. The more he wanted to get out, the more he had to stay, so he might as well do what she says, for now. "You know you recognise me of someone i used to know..." Her smile dropped and now had a sad look on it. His heart melted when he saw her sad. "Ah, nevermind. Just take a shower, you smell like beer and puke." He walked into the shower and had a short shower. He kept thinking of what to do now, he was right in the lions den and he had no chance of getting out quickly. He sighed and rinsed his fur of the puke and beer. Few minutes later he got out and dried himself off.

He managed to get new pants from Krystal, since the puke stained the leggings of the outfit. He cursed under his breath and Krystal giggled. "Hey don't blame him, he's recently lost a friend and he's taking it hard..." She was cut off from John. "You mean Fox McCloud?" He kicked himself in his mind for saying that, most likely blowing his cover. "Yeah... Fox...How did you know?" He replied quickly. "I recognized you guys from the footage of the funeral." Krystal dropped her head in an upset manner. He once again kicked himself for saying what he said, knowing he just upset her more than he should've. She fell on a couch and started crying. He sat next her to comfort her. She quickly hugged him tightly not letting go. Slippy had gone out so he wasn't in an awkward situation. He hugged her back. "Don't worry everything will be all right..." He sighed. He really wanted to tell her who he was, but he feared the worst would happen. She broke the hug and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush furiously. "S-sorry John..." He held her head up and hugged her again. "No it's alright...you've lost a friend. Don't worry i know what you're going through." She broke the hug. "Thanks for being so kind John. Would you like to sleep here tonight?" He knew that would be a bad idea, especially if they saw him at day they would probably recognise him. "Sorry Krystal, but i have to get going. I've only got one more night where i live and i have to move my stuff." She looked at him. "What? You live off planet?" "Yeah, sort of. I'm bit of a drifter. Anyway i got to go now. Nice meeting you Krystal." He closed the door behind him and took the elevator down and walked back to his rental, which turns out was right around the corner of the street.

He entered his room when he saw a figure sitting there in the dark. He would've reached for his pistol and fired, but he only had his knife in his boot. He turned on the light to see who it was. It was another vulpine sitting in a chair. "You killed my brother, and you will DIE!" John quickly dodged the bullets and managed to get his gun off the window and take cover behind a car outside. "I only did it because he was part of the bounty, it was nothing personal." John frowned when the vulpine threw a grenade at the car and fired his rifle at him. He managed to dodge, but he broke his leg after the explosion sent him into a wall. The vulpine walked up to him. "Now you DIE!" Fox quickly rolled out of the way and shot him in the head. He fell to the pavement. Fire put a glow around the street around him. He limped to his room again and grabbed his items, escaping down a alleyway. He passed out.

He woke up with incredible pain in his leg. He broke it during the fight, only managing to get out just in time before the grenade did more damage. He looked at it. He had only one chance: Snap it back in place, then limp to hospital. He noticed blood falling off his forehead, finding a massive gash there as well. He put his hands on the bone and snapped it in place, screaming in pain. It started bleeding more. He tore some of his pants to cover the wound and some to cover his head. He found a metal pole next to the bin he passed out next to. He started limping towards the local medical clinic.

Krystal heard that there was a death and a explosion just around the corner of Falco's apartment. She had been living there with Falco for awhile, at least until she could get a job and place to stay. The vulpine who left in a hurry was really curious. He didn't feel like being there, but still had the heart to hug her when she needed comfort. He reminded her alot of Fox, he was the only one who actually cared enough to do that for her. She did admit he looked alot like him, just with a new outfit and brown fur. She could've sworn it was him. She went down the street the next morning. There was blood everywhere, a small crater where a husk of a car stood and dead vulpine. The police were already taking care of the situation. She had to find out if that vulpine was John. She went up to the police who were about to send the body to a morgue. "Excuse me sir, but can i please look at his face? I just need to know who it is." The policeman nodded and revealed the vulpines face. She was horrified that a hole bore right through his head but to her relief, it wasn't John. She then looked at the building across the road. She ran up to the person who was at the desk. "Excuse me, but was there a vulpine here by the name of John Greyall?" The dark avian looked at her. "Yes there was, but he picked up his stuff and left during the night. Very shortly after the large explosion. The avian gave her a CD. "Here, it might do better in your hands than the police." She smiled and ran off. She put the CD into the player when she got back to Falco's place.

The footage showed a injured vulpine grab his things with a bloody forehead and gash. "He could've gone to hospital you know." She turned around to see Falco gripping his head. "Whoever he is i gotta tell ya, he looked alot like Fox." "Yeah i know. I just need to know if he's alright." The avian chuckled. "Hell you really think he's Fox?" His expression changed after he asked the question. Krystal looked at him. "If he is Fox, he's got alot to explain." She walked back onto the street and headed to the hospital.

John was taken into the emergency room, his belongings put into a bag and put under the receptionists desk. He looked around the room he was in. He checked his wounds, they were bandaged and were healing slowly. He began to wonder if Krystal would find him, especially after what happened. He really wasn't looking forward to it. He was transferred to a patients room. He was alone again, until a blue vixen came walking in. "Hello again." He smiled, trying to keep it friendly. The vixen shook her head. "What happened? There was a dead body and a burnt out car..." He frowned and looked at her. "Look, i'm not actually a drifter, i'm actually a bounty hunter on vacation." She stood back up in shock. "What? You don't look like one." He laughed. "Yeah, thats what the employer and bounty hunters said as well, but i proved them dead wrong." She was taken aback by all of this. "I know it's weird of me to say this, but are you.. Fox?" He frowned again, this time he knew if he couldn't come up with a good reason, she would assume and then hurtful memories would come flooding back. "No, i'm not Fox McCloud. But i will tell you something about him though..." She was dissapointed when she heard that he wasn't who she thought he was and didn't believe him at first. She was then compelled to ask what he knew about Fox. "What about Fox?" He looked her straight in the eyes. "He's not dead." Her eyes widened in shock, the reports said he was dead and this vulpine was telling her otherwise. "What? How do you know?" He knew she no longer considered him as Fox now, but he would have to make up a damn good story. "I saw Fox a day after the so-called death of Fox McCloud. He was in a bar in a system outside Lylat." She was taking all of this in, actually believing him. "That was the last i saw of him though. He looked different, but it was definitely him." She got up and left. "Where are you going?" She turned around with tears in her eyes. "I'm going to go find him, if it takes me another ten years, so be it." She walked out.

John looked at himself, knowing he just sent her into the abyss of space, never to see her again. something cracked, something deep inside of him. He started to feel that no reason he could think of, it would just get him angrier. He knew he just sent her away into a unknown system outside of Lylat. He was so angry he couldn't think properly, an anger swept over him. He walked out of the bed, not caring about his hurt leg. He needed to get away from here. No matter what. He knew he had snapped. He felt his insanity start to fall over him. He was thinking of a new name for himself, one that would give him a new definition. One like: Dead-X.

He was now an assassin, sure he took bountys, but treated them like assassinations. He was earning heaps of credits but hardly bought anything but weapons for missions. It had been almost half a year since he told Krystal where so-called Fox was. He never forgave himself for it and his employers were afraid of him because he only went on bountys that ended with the victim dying. He had begun love the sound of his victims chocking to death or having a bullet in their throat. He barely ate, which made him look skinnier than most vulpine and he took a red contact from one of his victims. He would have taken the other one but that one had a bullet right through it. He put it in his eye and dyed his fur a dark red, making him look more psychotic. He wanted to look crazy because he was crazy. Even he knew he had snapped. His mission reports always said the victim as he liked to call them, ended having a painful or gruesome death. He was no longer John, Redeemer or anything else. Just Dead-X.

He got a new bounty from a scared messenger that looked only eighteen. The kid looked at him with a look that said: Please don't kill me. He took the letter and went back inside the rundown hotel he was living at. Reward: 79000 Credits. Number of men: 50. Risk: Incredibly high. He laughed at the numbers. His records had shown within the half of the year he started working, he had already killed over 700 people. That was the average for most bounty hunters' careers. He already had a bounty on his head, because his last employer gave him wrong information almost getting him killed. He managed to kill everyone on that mission, but he had to take it out on him anyway. He looked at the new bounty again and it said something about a ship in the middle of space. His ship wasn't repaired yet, not after the last mission. He had to get someone else to get him on the ship. He sourced out that a ship was going to carry supplies to the ship. He quickly got up and walked to the spaceport.

Krystal or Kursed had been delivering supplies lately. She hated doing it, but she had to do it. Otherwise her employers would get mad. She sighed and loaded the cargo. unbeknownst to her that certain vulpine was in one of the crates.

Dead-X looked in his bag. Eight bombs. Enough to cause some chaos, while he dispatched the crew of the ship later in the week he would come back to. He did not plan on getting it done within a day so he streched it out to about two weeks. The ship he was on was almost there. He got out of the crate he was in after the ship had dropped of the supplies. Everyone was in the cafeteria of the ship and only a few strays were walking around. He placed a charge under a panel of the floor in the hangar. He swiftly moved around the ship, looking for more places to put the bombs. He thought about putting one next to the door and controls of the brig. If he got captured. He put it under just in time a crewmember walked down the hallway. He quickly made it back to the hangar and took a fighter, alerting the whole ship to his presence. Twenty of the crew started firing but to little effect. He escaped and made it back to his hideout. He knew it was becoming too risky. But would he really throw it all away after all that effort? Hell no. He fell back on the bed and started sleeping. But what he didn't know was he got sedated and dragged away.

Kursed had another delivery to the same ship. Again. It was starting to piss her off, she was a bounty hunter, not a freaking delivery girl. She sighed and put the cargo in again, making her way to the cockpit and flying to the coordinates again.

"Put the captive in the brig, that'll teach him to sneak onto my ship." The captain sneered. The inconscious vulpine was trhown onto a cell's bed and was kept there. "Attention, captain, this is Kursed, waiting for you to give me the go ahead." "Yeah you have clearance, stand by." The captain walked towards the cell, keeping an eye on the captive. He had taken a blood sample from the vulpine to determine who it was, who was trying to kill him for the past two weeks. The result came back and the captain looked at it in disbelief. "So Fox McCloud, how does it feel to be dead?"

**Okay, thats all for the prologues and i promise i'm not going to stall anymore. Sorry for the wait as well. I just felt that the start of the whole thing was left to open, as if it was not finished so i had to do something about it. Anyways next chapter will go where they currently are so no need to worry now. Personally i would have reconfigured the whole story so that the prologues were at the start...but what can i say? I'm not a quick thinker. Cheers for the comments!**


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